Europe, tastes differ," he said. "Central Eu
ropeans go for the Swiss taste, made from a
mixture of beans from many lands and care
fully conched. The Spanish use mostly Bra
zilian beans, which have a different taste,
and they prefer their chocolate in large
slabs. The French use beans from their for
mer colonies in West Africa; the Nether
lands gets its beans from Asia. And you
Americans prefer a sweeter-tasting choco
late blend, which is one reason why so many
European companies have affiliated plants
in North America."
Switzerland's largest chocolate company
has a plant located in a small village that
appropriately-nestles in the foothills of the
Alps. The village is Broc; the company, of
course, is Nestle.
Henri Nestle didn't start out in the choco
late business; he made baby food. It was his
work with condensed milk that helped Swiss
chocolatier Daniel Peter invent a method of
combining chocolate and milk in solid
form-the first milk chocolate-in 1875.
Today the Nestle firm is a giant, with choco
late plants in 13 countries, and it has diversi
fied into many other products.
But unlike Hershey, which casts its be
nevolent brown shadow over the Pennsyl
vania town that bears its name, this area is
as noted for cheese as for chocolate. Nearby
is the famous old village of Gruyeres.
9NE MAJOR QUESTION nagged
at me during my travels: Who
does make the best chocolate
on earth?
Is it Godiva, in Brussels? Lindt &
Spriingli, in Zurich? Or is it some perfec
tionist hidden away in a part of the world I
have yet to visit? Perhaps it is the restaurant
Taillevent, in Paris, which makes its own
chocolate fresh daily: "Chocolates more
than three days old are dead; they've lost all
their flavor," says chef Claude Deligne.
Or perhaps it is the small London chain
called Charbonnel et Walker, with their
firm but quiet claim-"Probably the Best
Chocolates in the World." As supporting
evidence, they told me of a New York host
ess who, discovering that her supply of
dinner mints was running low, sent her
chauffeur flying off to London to replenish
the supply at Charbonnel et Walker.
Without a doubt their chocolates are very,
very good. But the best? The ultimate an
swer, I think, lies in the taste buds of each
chocolate lover. Still, that episode of the
New York hostess points at another fact
chocolate, food of the gods, has an almost
magical power to engender emotional ex
travagance. What else, except fine wine,
can do that?
But chocolate can generate another emo
tion too: guilt. Doesn't it cause cavities?
Make your face break out? Make you fat?
Chocolate associations on both sides of
the Atlantic deny the first two points. Acne,
they say, is not primarily linked to diet; nu
tritional tests tend to back that assertion. As
far as tooth decay is concerned, more than
one research group has found that cocoa
powder contains a substance that may actu
ally inhibit cavities.
Will chocolate make you fat? Most cer
tainly it will, if you lead a sedentary life and
gorge yourself on it. But it is an excellent
high-energy food. Sir Edmund Hillary and
his teammates devoured pounds of it strug
gling up Mount Everest. All American and
Soviet spaceflights have carried it aboard.
Armies have often used it for quick energy.
Well, chocolate associations are in the
business of selling chocolate. Consider in
stead this humble evidence: In all my choco
late travels-and I was not resistant to the
free samples that came my way-I gained no
cavities, no pimples, and no poundage.
Moderation: That's the key. Nibble if you
will, you chocoholics, but take to heart the
advice that appeared in aSpectatorarticle in
England more than two centuries ago:
"I shall also advise my fair readers to be in
a particular manner careful how they med
dle with romances, Chocolates, novels, and
the like inflamers.
..
."
0[
The sweet taste of Liberty towers eight and a halffeet tall in a 229-pound sculpture
crowned by BarcelonaconfectionerJose Balcells Pallards.He and assistantXavier
Salvat created the semisweet chocolate novelty in three days of intense craftsmanship.
Their secretfor devouring chocolate and staying slim? "Working hard." JAMESL. STANFIELD
National Geographic, November 1984
686